Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, July 5, 2009 – Brazil, the former two-time world champions and the consecutive six-time South American winners, became the only team in the top-flight championship not to lose a single set to their rivals in the group round-robin preliminaries. On their final match against Italy, the Brazilians showed their gritty performance to brush off the Italians in closely-contested three sets 25-22 25-20 25-15. Both teams started with the same level in the first set. Jacintho Aparecida Francyne, who sored a match-high 11 points including eight kills from nine attempts, pierced the Italian defence with her spectacular spikes to help her team win the tightly-contested set 25-22. Italy, propelled by hard-attacking Valentina Diouf, the 202cm tall and the championship’s tallest player, tried to recover from the first-set loss. Still, their more determination did not work out well as Brazilian controlled the game tactically and technically. Brazil netted the second set 25-20. The third set turned out to be a lop-sided battle when the Brazilian players entirely foiled all the Italian attempts. Brazil captured the third set as expected 25-15.